We have the figure, and it is the highest since Houston in 2013: 81,836. That beats Louisville last year which was 80,452. Houston will be a hard record to beat since it was the height of the post-Sandy Hook effort to attack the NRA.

Atlanta was a pretty good convention city. The only thing holding it back from being a great convention city being kind of pricy. But the food and drink were pretty good, and I don’t mind prices when you’re getting what you’re paying for. I don’t think I had one stingy pour when ordering a proper drink.

The convention center relies heavily on escalators, and I remembered what a shit show the escalator situation in Phoenix was. But the convention center people in Atlanta managed the situation much better than Phoenix did and everything went smoothly.

Also, Atlanta has a heaping amount of Southern Hospitality. Everyone is nice. Arriving at Hartsfield–Jackson, the airport had signage up welcoming NRA. You notice I didn’t do my traditional post about local media saying awful things about NRA and attendees? I didn’t notice anything. This is a sharp contrast to Charlotte, NC, which I use as the poster child for unwelcoming cities.

The last time my family were here, we burned the place to the ground. But I will happily leave Atlanta unmolested, and hope to return with NRA sometime in the future.

23 Responses to “NRA Annual Meeting Attendance 2017”

Thanks for posting this! Very good news!
I believe next year in Dallas, they will break another record. My hypothesis is based on air fair and Dallas being cheaper for all people having to fly in from all points. Now adding the chance that National Reciprocity might be passed?

I’m curious, since you witnessed everything firsthand: What was the nature of such protestors as showed up? Did they seem to be entirely focused gun-banner types, or were there more generalized types, e.g., the kind that may have come just to protest Trump?

I ask because, the more radical left wing sites seem to have paid no attention at all to the NRA Meetings, and I’m wondering if that was a function of geography, or if in fact the NRA is barely on their radar. Or, if they were distracted by what they regarded as bigger fish, e.g, the neo-Nazi rally in Pikeville, KY, that turned out to be a nothing-burger.

During the two days I was there (Fri & Sat)I was amazed to find no demonstrators at or near the convention! I walked around looking…no banners or signs across the street, nothing! After leaving, I looked on the INET and discovered that there has been a demonstration…about 200 protesters in a small park six blocks away! A very wise decision, as I spoke with other convention attendees who had intended to seriously confront and debate with protesters…but no one had seen any.

Given that Keller is known to be heavily involved with SA, and the fact that the CEO of SA and Owner of RRA are listed as officers as of 2016 (http://i.imgur.com/kwVWwN2.jpg) it seems fishy that they had no idea what was going on.

If they fire Keller, that would go along way to restoring trust. As of right now, nobody trusts their statement.

I absolutely agree. How they were dealing with it at first was not good though, and I think that was a large part of the problem. This info came out on Thursday and we heard nothing for days, except for a very weasily worded statement from SA.

Even a “We are 100% opposed to this bill and are investigating this” would have spared them a lot of anger.

Its good to see them doing the right thing now, but I’m sure some people will think the only reason they did this now is because of the pressure.

I’m sure some people will think the only reason they did this now is because of the pressure

While it did come through the gossip mill (though someone with the right connections to hear from people who make these decisions), there was some chatter at NRA that shops were already pulling their guns from the shelves. Their attitude was that they’d rather just not have them out in case it proved true and there was backlash from the community. If it turned out to be incorrect, or they made it right, then the guns would go back out. But the shops weren’t going to put their reputations on the line for SA & RRA for something like this.

If they heard even remotely the same thing, I’m quite sure that inspired their actions.

The staff of the conference center really were amazing. Even at the end of a long day, so many had smiles on and welcomed people with warm greetings. I don’t think I’ve ever been asked to visit again by anyone other than a hotel desk clerk in a convention city, and yet I heard it several times from the staff on the way out the last day.

He meant escalators. They have narrow little ones in a row, and you must use them to go up and down many floors. You can’t just quickly get onto the show floor or walk around someone going slower because you’re trapped on a single file escalator.

I’m just happy they weren’t super long escalators. I hate going down those. I already hate down escalators in general, but the ones that are really tall and wide open around them, I feel like I’m going to fall.

They did have two sets of them, and the 2nd was far less crowded. There wasn’t a massive pile-up at the main set because they had enough site staff manning them and turning away people without credentials. (Registration was on the main floor where you entered.) I do believe that split the crowd just enough to keep the swarm that happened in Arizona from happening again.

Commenting on your observation about the welcome signs at the airport, the local media here in Atlanta are pretty fair when it comes to gun rights organizations. Our state group GeorgiaCarry.org has great relations with them.